Emes – Page 51 – Peninim on the Torah

יברכך ד' וישמרך... יאר ד'... ויחנך... ישא ד'... וישם לך שלום

May Hashem bless you and safeguard you. May Hashem illuminate His Countenance… and be gracious to you… May Hashem lift His Countenance… and establish peace for you. (6:24,25,26)

The Kohanim are enjoined with blessing the Jewish People with a three-fold blessing, petitioning Hashem: to safeguard the nation (shemirah); to shine His Countenance on them and grant them chein, graciousness and favor (v’yechuneka); and to grant the third, and greatest blessing of peace (shalom). Obviously, the sequence teaches us an important principle; peace follows after one is protected, both from without and within, from internal enemies and even from himself. Favor is the result of Hashem’s blessing which we earn through the light of Torah. Without Torah, life is very dim; we do nothing but grope from one obstacle…

Home -> 5777 -> Naso

איש או אישה כי יפלא לנדר נדר נזיר להזיר לד'

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Naso, 5777

A man or a woman who shall disassociate himself by taking a Nazirite vow of abstinence for the sake of Hashem. (6:2)

While Judaism does not encourage extremism of any kind, it nonetheless makes provisions for those who desire or feel that they must live outside or beyond society’s conventional norms. Thus, the Torah channels this tendency, as it does with all human drives (and obsessions), into serving Hashem. The case in question is the nazir who has taken upon himself the added restrictions of abstaining from all wine and grape products – fruit products that otherwise have no Biblical or Rabbinic prohibitions placed on them. Furthermore, as a member of society in which almost all public and private celebrations include wine…

Home -> 5777 -> Naso

ויעשו כן בני ישראל וישלחו אותם אל מחוץ למחנה כאשר דבר ד' אל משה

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Naso, 5777

Bnei Yisrael did so; they expelled them to the outskirts of the camps, as Hashem had spoken to Moshe. (5:4)

The Sifsei Kohen views this pasuk as an enormous accolade regarding the character of Klal Yisrael. The nation sent out from their camps only those individuals who were so enjoined by Hashem. The zav was sent out only from two camps: Shechinah and Leviah. Machane Yisrael welcomed both him and the metzora, despite the nature of their diseases. They did only what Hashem had asked of them – and no more. They could easily have said, “Why should we allow the zav and metzora – individuals whose illnesses are repulsive in nature and who are ritually contaminated – to remain…

Home -> Matos -> 5777

כי בעיר מקלטו ישב עד מות הכהן הגדל

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In 5777, Matos

He shall dwell in it until the death of the Kohen Gadol. (35:28)

The Talmud Makkos 11a teaches that, since the fate of the rotzeach b’shogeg, unintentional murderer, was dependent upon the Kohen Gadol’s longevity, there was fear that the rotzeach would pray for the early demise of the Kohen Gadol. Once the Kohen Gadol died, the murderer would be free to leave the ir miklat, city of refuge. To circumvent their prayers, the mothers of the Kohanim Gedolim would furnish the murderers with food and clothing to keep them happy and satisfied, so that they would not pray for the death of their sons. Why did the Kohen Gadol not personally pray…

Home -> 5777 -> Korach

ויאמר משה בזאת תדעון כי ד' שלחני לעשות את כל המעשים האלה

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Korach, 5777

Moshe said, “Through this, shall you know that Hashem sent me to perform all these acts.” (16:28)

Moshe Rabbeinu took an enormous chance when he implied to Korach that Hashem would back him up (with a miracle). What would have happened if Hashem had not provided Moshe with a miraculous intervention? Moshe was placing his position as shaliach Hashem, the agent of the Almighty, in jeopardy. Why did he do this? Horav Yaakov Kamenetzky, zl, explains that, with Korach’s rebellion, Moshe saw and was compelled to acknowledge that, sadly, there were Jews who still questioned Moshe’s Divine mandate to serve as Klal Yisrael’s leader. If this was the case, then all of the Torah that he had…

Home -> 5777 -> Korach

רב לכם בני לו

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Korach, 5777

There is much to you, Bnei Levi. (16:7)

Rashi asks: Korach was a pikeach, clever person. What is it that he saw which led him to this shtus, folly? (What did he think? He obviously knew that what he was undertaking was mutinous. Did he think that he would emerge unscathed?) Eino hitato – His eye led him to error. He saw a great chain of descendants emerging from him (referring to Shmuel HaNavi, the twenty-four mishmaros, watches, which officiated in the Bais Hamikdash. Among them were included Neviim, prophets, who possessed Ruach HaKodesh, Divine inspiration). Korach ruminated to himself, “Is it possible that all of this greatness…

Home -> 5777 -> Korach

ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Korach, 5777

Korach ben Yitzhar, ben Kehas, ben Levi, took (separated himself). (16:1)

Noticeably, Yaakov Avinu’s name is omitted from Korach’s lineage. Rashi comments that it was the Patriarch himself who prayed that his name be deleted from anything connected to Korach. Simply, Yaakov wanted no association whatsoever, even by name, with Korach. This, of course, does not deny the fact that everyone knows that Yaakov was Levi’s father, and, in turn, the Patriarch of Korach’s lineage, but the deletion of Yaakov’s name declares that no part of Korach’s nefarious behavior had its source in Yaakov. Yaakov is the epitome of emes, truth. Machlokes, controversy, by its very nature, is founded in sheker,…

Home -> 5777 -> Korach

ויקח קרח

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Korach, 5777

Korach took (separated himself). (16:1)

Korach was the first prominent demagogue to create a rift in Klal Yisrael when he impugned Moshe Rabbeinu’s leadership, and, by extension, created a mutiny against Hashem. Targum Onkeles defines machlokes, controversy, as: pilug; a split; a breach; a rift. Klal Yisrael is supposed to live in harmony. We must strive to emulate Hashem, Who is Echad, One. Thus, when we live together as one, we give satisfaction to Hashem. Chazal distinguish between a machlokes, which is l’shem Shomayim, for the sake of Heaven, and one which is not. A machlokes l’shem Shomayim is a dispute in which each party…

Home -> 5777 -> Ki Seitzei

כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה איננו שמע בקול אביו ובקול אמו

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Ki Seitzei, 5777

If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother. (21:18)

The Torah refers to the father of the wayward and rebellious son as an ish, a man, and then goes on to state the boy’s sin: he does not obey his father and mother. Why does the Torah refer to the ish/father as the boy’s progenitor, as having begotten him, but – in contrast – when it addresses his disobedience, he is considered to be son of both his father and mother? This inconsistency in and of itself might be the precursor for the boy’s degenerate behavior. Parents have a child; it is a boy! The father immediately takes charge….

Home -> 5777 -> Emor

והכהן הגדול מאחיו... ועל כל נפשת מת לא יבא לאביו ולאמו לא יטמא

Rabbi L. Scheinbaum In Emor, 5777

The Kohen who is exalted above his brethren… he shall not come near any dead person; he shall not contaminate himself to his father or his mother. (21:10,11)

The Chassidic Masters posit that the Kohen Gadol is prohibited from defiling himself ritually (metamei) to relatives – including even his parents, because, as the individual who stands at the spiritual helm of the nation, he should feel equally close to all Jews. The concept of “family” should not apply to him, since all of Klal Yisrael is his family. This is, of course, a very noble concept to which an individual who climbs the ladder of spiritual ascendency should aspire. Veritably, feeling a stronger sense of closeness to one’s family is entirely normal. The Ohaiv Yisrael, Horav David, zl,…

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יברכך ד' וישמרך... יאר ד'... ויחנך... ישא ד'... וישם לך שלום

May Hashem bless you and safeguard you. May Hashem illuminate His Countenance… and be gracious to you… May Hashem lift His Countenance… and establish peace for you. (6:24,25,26)

איש או אישה כי יפלא לנדר נדר נזיר להזיר לד'

A man or a woman who shall disassociate himself by taking a Nazirite vow of abstinence for the sake of Hashem. (6:2)

ויעשו כן בני ישראל וישלחו אותם אל מחוץ למחנה כאשר דבר ד' אל משה

Bnei Yisrael did so; they expelled them to the outskirts of the camps, as Hashem had spoken to Moshe. (5:4)

כי בעיר מקלטו ישב עד מות הכהן הגדל

He shall dwell in it until the death of the Kohen Gadol. (35:28)

ויאמר משה בזאת תדעון כי ד' שלחני לעשות את כל המעשים האלה

Moshe said, “Through this, shall you know that Hashem sent me to perform all these acts.” (16:28)

רב לכם בני לו

There is much to you, Bnei Levi. (16:7)

ויקח קרח בן יצהר בן קהת בן לוי

Korach ben Yitzhar, ben Kehas, ben Levi, took (separated himself). (16:1)

ויקח קרח

Korach took (separated himself). (16:1)

כי יהיה לאיש בן סורר ומורה איננו שמע בקול אביו ובקול אמו

If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother. (21:18)

והכהן הגדול מאחיו... ועל כל נפשת מת לא יבא לאביו ולאמו לא יטמא

The Kohen who is exalted above his brethren… he shall not come near any dead person; he shall not contaminate himself to his father or his mother. (21:10,11)

YEARS

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